Modern merchandising is designed to foster impulse buying by displaying goods for sale in an attractive manner so as to catch the eye of the shopper and appeal to his desires. A shopper waiting at a counter for service is especially susceptible to an attractive display, since he is merely waiting, as in a check-out line.
The package displaying dispenser of the present application is designed for use above a counter, such as a check-out counter, in such a way that it is close to and readily seen by the waiting shopper, but high enough over the counter so that the counter top itself is unobstructed. Thus, the shopper can see the display and also put down on the counter top anything he is carrying, such as his selection of merchandise.
The package displaying dispenser is in the shape of a rectangular prism. One of its major faces is transparent so that the stacked packages within, which may be cigarette packs, can be seen by the shopper. He can, however, not remove a package because the said major face has no openings. The opposite major face, which is on the clerk's side of the counter, is open at the top so that the display can be loaded with additional packages, and also has a long slot opening at the bottom so that the clerk can remove packages. The first-in, first-out dispensing results in a desirable rotation of the stock, not had when loading and removal are from the top of a stack.
There are so many different brands of cigarettes on the market and smoker's tastes are so varied, that, in order to satisfy 95 percent of all customers, almost a hundred different brands should be stocked. This requires the package displaying dispenser to extend for a considerable length along the counter, about 20 feet for 100 stacks of cigarettes. In accordance with one of the features of our invention, this length can be cut in half by piggy-backing an additional package displaying dispenser behind the one in front. The additional one is visible through the one in front, so that the shopper sees a second set of packages stacked behind the ones in front.
In this arrangement, labels in the form of advertising placards can be posted at the bottom of the front package displaying dispenser to indicate the nature of the adjacent stacks of packages in the front and rear.